Sections - Tips & Tricks

Velcome to ze "Tips 'n' Tricks" bit - Here's a variety of tips from all areas of studio, midi & live work. The emphasis here is not just about tricks to get sounds, but also ideas to save money or time.

But surely YOU have soom real cool tips to share with your comrades in arms of the music world?! - Feel free to add your own money-saving or technique tips!

Check out some of the Tips below, or add your own & hey!... don't forget, there are plenty of FX-Tips in the Articles section too!

STEREO FLANGE SPREAD This FX can sound good on anything from a hi-hat, to a bass synth......It`s basically a tight Flange fX, split L & R, to spread the FX`d sound across the speakers. Set a short Delay Time.....About 50 ms. Then select the hi-hat channel, and send some hi-hat signal out to the Delay Unit via the Aux Send.

Bring the Delay return back into the desk, and Pan the original hi-hat Left, and the Delay hi-hat, Right.......Adjust the Delay time, Feedback, and the Volume level of both the original and Delay hi-hat, until you get a nice metallic hi-hat sound, spread across the speakers in stereo.....

You can now try sweeping the sound, by adding some Modulation Depth, and turning up the Feedback Control.......You can play with the Mod Depth, until the sweeps rise & fall in time with the track. If you really tighten up the Delay Time, this FX sounds wicked on Bass......If you go real mental with this FX, you will get the old Police Siren Special.............

POLICE SIREN

This FX seems to work better on crappier delay units, cos what we're after here is overload feedback, and some of the more expensive units have something inside to prevent the unit from overloading.....

Basically, just set a short Delay Time and everything as above....Now turn the Feedback Control right up as far as it will go, and increase the level going into the Delay Unit, until you get distortion !!

At this point the Delay sound coming out should "CATCH".....It's hard to describe, but if the Delay Time is set short enuff, then the sound should sound like a Police Siren....Rising gently up and down in pitch......Like........... WEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOWWWWW......WEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOWWWW....(Hmmm, bet that makes it clearer !!)

Once you have got the unit feeding back, you don't have to send the Delay into it any more....If you turn off the send from the hi-hat, to the Delay, the sound should stay......

Now you can mix it in with your regular track......You can switch from the long siren sweeps, to short ones (just like a real siren), by adjusting the Mod Depth from low to high, and back again......

If you get this right, it's indistinguishable, from a real siren.....Exactly the same sound !!

SURROUND SOUND/ X-OVER DELAY

There are some units on the market, that will push out the edges of the stereo field, to give more width to the sound.....You can get the same FX by using 2 short delays, and adding this FX to your finished Stereo tracks...(of course you will need 2 Units for this FX).

Set each Delay Unit, with a short Delay time, about 20 - 40 ms., with no, or very little Feedback, and no modulation.

Next, send the Left channel to Delay Unit 1, via an Aux send.........Then send the Right channel to Delay Unit 2, via another Aux send...(the Aux sends must be seperate).

Now, Pan the Left channel Delay return RIGHT..............And the Right channel Delay return LEFT

Finally, adjust the volumes of the Original L & R Stereo tracks to be equal, then raise the L & R Delay returns, until you get the desired FX strength.....This FX can sound great if you gring it in applied quite heavily at a breakdown point on the track.

STEREO CHORUS SPREAD FX

This FX sounds great on synth lines, and can make it sound like there's a doubled layered sound.

Just set up the Delay Unit for a standard Chorus sound...That is a low Delay Time about 100ms, about 20% Feedback, and about 25% Mod Depth, and 50%Mod Rate.

Just pan the original synth Left, and the Delay return Right, for a nice fat stereo spread sound....

This also sounds wicked on backing vocal harmonies, spreading them right across the Stereo field, and seperating them from the main vocal....It can also helps to hide dodgy tuning, if your vocalists are a bit flat or out of tune.

If you are working alone, and you want to produce multiple FX like the above, but also with pan and volume fades, or complicated echo FX, see the COMPLICATED DELAY FX PRODUCTION TIPS page in the FX-RACK section